Lolita's Perception

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗

That Sunday, I was woken up nearly two whole hours before the sun. Not to the soft song of birds, or the radio, or anything nice like that. Instead, I was jolted out of my sleep by the coldness of my mother's hands, and raspiness of her voice.

"Dolores, wake up!" she harshly whispered, shaking me by the shoulders. "I don't want us to be late for church!"

My eyes fluttered open to see mother frantically waving an unlit cigarette around in my face. Her nails smelled of freshly applied nail polish, and she already had a full face of makeup on.

"But we don't usually get up so early for—" I began, before she quickly cut me off. "Well, today I'm planning on asking Humbert to come with us, so I'd like to make a good first impression..."

"What do you mean, first impression? We've been to church lots of times!"  I knew I was playing dumb, but the way she talked bothered me.

"Oh, you know...the first time the three of us show up together."

"Yuck!" I nearly shouted, pulling the blanket all the way up over my head. "I don't wanna be apart of your dumb, fake family!"

"It is not fake!" she defensively replied, quickly pulling the blankets away from me once again.

"It is, too!" I exclaimed, turning away from her in annoyance.

"Fine," I huffed, abruptly sitting up. "I'll go, but I won't have any fun!!"

"Life isn't all fun, you know." she bitterly replied, turning to leave.

"Life isn't all fun, you know." I repeated, imitating her fake 'sophisticated' voice.

Soon I started fidgeting with the braids in my hair, letting out a soft sigh as I flopped back down onto the bed. With a quick turn to my nightstand, I switched on the radio, flipping through stations till it landed on a song where three girls wouldn't shut up about some stupid apple tree. I swung my feet high in the air behind me, humming along to the catchy tune as I flipped through the thin pages of 'Movie Love' magazine.

Before the song even had a chance to finish, Mother burst right into my room, her long spindly arms tightly crossed. This time, her cigarette was lit. That's never a good sign when she's mad. Not like she had ever really burnt me with one (well...not on purpose, of course) but she sure has threatened.

"What are you doing lounging around?" she demanded, waving her hand frantically all around. "Go get dressed—and for goodness sake, take a bath!"

"I already took one last night!" I shouted back, tossing an empty pack of cards at her.

"Well, take one again!" she exclaimed, swatting me with the back of her left hand, making sure to hit my tailbone with her ring.

"I don't have to!" I replied, scrunching up my nose in defiance. "I don't have to do a single thing that you, or anyone else in this whole entire world tells me to!"

"Alright, fine," she sighed, beyond exasperated. "But for goodness sake—get dressed!"

I rolled my eyes once she'd disappeared down the hall, turning the radio up before throwing on a pair of scuffed up blue jeans and Daddy's old green and white flannel. Of course, Mother just about started screaming when she saw it. If it weren't for Humbert being there, I really think she would've hit me.

"What on earth are you wearing!?" she screeched, grabbing my shoulder with her cold bony hand and sending me right up the stairs.

"Clothes." I replied, giving her a quick flippant shrug. "You told me to get dressed, I did. Happy?"